Porky Goodness

I love pork in any way, shape or form. A roast with lots of crispy crackling, a juicy fillet, an old fashioned chop, smoked ham or bacon. Mmmmm!

As much as a roast can be wonderful in the cold weather, sometimes it can be a little bit too fatty and rich. Using a fillet solves that problem and leaves you with lovely lean meat with beautiful flavour and tenderness. This recipe is one of my favourites to have with pork. The sweet, but slightly bitter marmalade creates a beautiful sauce and the addition of the fennel seeds adds an extra dimension. A little bit of aniseed, a little bit of texture.

You can serve the pork with whatever vegetables you like. I chose snow peas, beans and roast potato, as that's what I had on hand. Mashed potato would also be great to soak up the beautiful sauce. If you don't like pork, this sauce would go equally well with chicken, turkey or even duck. Almost like duck a l'orange. The recipe makes a decent amount of sauce, but if you like to have a lot, or want to have some leftovers, then I'd recommend doubling it. You can never have too much sauce!

Marmalade Pork

1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup marmalade
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed in a mortar and pestle
2x400g pork fillets
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Vegetables to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
Heat a drizzle of oil in a small saucepan and fry shallot and garlic until starting to soften.
Add marmalade, fennel seeds and salt and pepper to taste and heat gently until the marmalade melts and all ingredients are combined.
Cut each pork fillet into two pieces and season to taste.
Heat another drizzle of oil in a frying pan and brown the pork on all sides.
Transfer to a baking tray.
Spoon some of the glaze over the top of the pork and bake for 15 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. You still want some pink in the centre of the meat.
Allow the meat to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.
Combine any of the meat juices with the remaining glaze and heat gently to combine.
Serve a piece of pork on each plate with the remaining sauce and your choice of vegetables.

Enjoy!

And To Drink....

To go with the richness of the pork and the sweet, but bitter marmalade sauce, you want a wine with a bit of body. This Vinaceous 'Shakre' chardonnay from Margaret River was a perfect choice.

A more modern style of chardonnay, it is fresh and fruity with some complexity. There is none of that heavily oaked or buttery style in this wine. Full of citrus and stone fruits, it perfectly complemented the sweet, juicy pork. 

I am really starting to enjoy my chardonnay now, and this was a great example of why I now love this grape variety. I urge you to try the Vinaceous range, but also to venture out and try the newer styles of chardonnay which are just delicious! Margaret River, the Adelaide Hills and Yarra Valley are all producing some great wines, particularly from the smaller wineries.